Fifteen
Fifteen
In Fifteen, Midnight McKenzie is a pregnant fifteen-year-old child bride. Confused and frightened, Midnight finds herself standing before the altar with someone she scarcely knows. Or trusts.
Her mother, Emily, on finding the pregnancy test results, railroads Midnight into marrying her daughter’s older boyfriend, Richard. Deeply religious, Emily believes that marriage will legitimize the pregnancy and prevent Richard from being charged with rape. It is an offense that Midnight’s father, Luke, a Kansas City Violent Crimes Detective, would certainly have filed. Emily’s love interest, James, posing as Richard’s father, offers to take the newlyweds to his isolated fishing cabin for two months on a honeymoon. Emily leaves her daughter with Richard and James, promising to return in two months. Despite Midnight’s protests, she will tell Luke, ex-husband, that their daughter is at a remote church retreat.
Complicating matters, Midnight is not carrying Richard’s child. Two months earlier, she was drugged, then raped. She cannot remember the circumstances or her rapist, but she suspects it was James. Afraid of sending her mother into a bi-polar collapse, Midnight leads Emily to believe that Richard is the father of her child, but she never intended to marry him. Midnight is not ready to give up school, her friends, and most of all, her dad.
